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UP FIRST

Protesters plastered leaflets on Rochester City Hall in 2020 during a demonstration against police brutality. The city in upstate New York has found itself divided over Israel in recent months. (Photo: Getty Images)

Jason Yungbluth draws and sells erotic comic strips on his website. But he took a break from that work earlier this month to send officials in upstate New York’s Monroe County, which includes Rochester, a cartoon satirizing what Yungbluth believed was the local Jewish federation’s undue influence over local politics.

The cartoon is undeniably offensive (warning: the image is hosted on his website alongside other graphic content). It depicts Meredith Dragon, chief of the federation — which Yungbluth calls an “Israeli pressure group” — in a dominatrix outfit emblazoned with an Israeli flag. She’s forcing Adam Bello, the county executive, to lick her boot. Michael Yudelson, another county official and local synagogue president, stands ready to brand Bello with the federation’s logo.

“Make those boots shine Adam!” Yudelson says. “We don’t want to have to get the ADL involved, do we?”

Rather than treat Yungbluth’s cartoon, and his attached letter calling on county officials to take down an Israeli flag they’ve been flying since October, as the work of a lone crank, Bello and Yudelson publicized the image in order to condemn it.

The Jewish Federations of North America followed suit, sending Yungbluth’s cartoon to reporters across the country and making the case that it represented what Jews across the country are up against: “The rhetoric and vitriol against Jews and Israel has been very consistent,” Evan Bernstein, who leads community relations for the federation network, told me.

It was no coincidence to Dragon that the Rochester City Council passed a ceasefire resolution just days after Yungbluth sent his cartoon to the county. In Dragon’s view, the resolution was also antisemitic, an outgrowth of antisemitic rhetoric at local protests and public meetings. Approving it on the heels of the news about a cartoon that showed evil-looking Jews controlling public officials could be perceived as tacit approval for the offensive tropes the image invoked.

“My fear is that those who are involved in these rallies will continue to use these terribly antisemitic tropes and they’re going to be emboldened by the city council,” Dragon said in an interview.

A different perspective

This argument has frustrated Mitch Gruber, Rochester’s only Jewish council member, who ultimately voted against the ceasefire resolution but defended his colleagues from the accusations of antisemitism. To Gruber, the cartoon — which was about a county rather than city dispute — just offered convenient ammunition for the federation.

“There was no such thing as a ceasefire resolution that was not going to lead to these claims of antisemitism,” said Gruber, who initially worked with Dragon on changing problematic language in the resolution. “There just wasn’t.”

Dragon told me that “it’s not true” that she would have described any ceasefire resolution as antisemitic. But she also said that for the council to criticize Israel without commenting on other foreign issues represented an antisemitic double standard.

Without oversimplifying the complexities of Dragon and Gruber’s perspectives on what happened in Rochester, this dust-up also shows two contrasting views of how the Jewish community should engage with the rising antisemitism and the political movement against Israel that has exploded since Oct. 7.

One view sees little daylight between the most obvious incidents of antisemitism, like bomb threats called into synagogues, and strident political speech against Israel: Of course a ceasefire resolution demonizing Israel came on the heels of an antisemitic cartoon.

The other perspective holds that you can’t automatically connect even offensive political speech about Israel to other cases of antisemitism, and that doing so is part of its own problematic trend: Of course the federation called a resolution criticizing Israel antisemitic and connected it to something totally unrelated.

Gruber said Jewish leaders should call "balls and strikes," and aim to serve as dispassionate arbiters of what is and isn’t antisemitic. But he realizes that may be too much to ask during the current political climate.

“Nuance and complexity is oftentimes lost in a world that is incredibly — if not almost exclusively — polarized,” Gruber said. “I accept that.”

Anti-social media? Online platforms saw skyrocketing antisemitism after Oct. 7

The Online Hate Prevention Institute found antisemitism had increased the most on Gab and X, formerly Twitter, since Oct. 7. TikTok had the smallest increase. (Photo: Getty Images)

A new report found that antisemitism, including comments that don’t appear to be related to Israel, soared across social media following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack against Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza. The Online Hate Prevention Institute used a broad definition of antisemitism in regard to Israel, but found that “traditional antisemitism” — conspiracies about Jewish world domination, Holocaust denial and related posts — increased by more than 400% in recent months.

Antisemitic posts grew the fastest on Gab, the far-right social media platform preferred by white supremacists, followed closely by X, formerly known as Twitter, which loosened its content moderation after Elon Musk purchased it two years ago. Interestingly, TikTok, which some Jewish leaders want to ban over concerns about antisemitism on the video platform, had the lowest rate of antisemitic posts.

The Online Hate Prevention Institute, which is based in Australia, is also seeking to introduce a new term called “racist anti-Zionism” into the lexicon. It’s meant to refer to animus toward “any Jew who isn’t overtly anti-Zionist,” a mindset the authors believe gives a free pass to spew hate toward most Jews in the world.

“Racist anti-Zionism needs to be distinguished from both ideological anti-Zionism and criticism of Israel,” David Matas, a Canadian human rights lawyer, wrote in the report’s introduction.

NEWS & VIEWS

New legislation seeks to require California’s public colleges and universities like UCLA, pictured above, to ban students and faculty from calling for genocide on campus. (Photo: Getty Images)

🐻 California could ban ‘genocide’ calls on campus: A new bill in California would require public colleges and universities to ban students and employees from calling for genocide while on campus, though it does not define the term and could place an additional burden on school administrators. (Forward)

🇮🇱 Trump appears to blame Israel for antisemitism: Asked about rising antisemitism in the U.S. since Oct. 7, former president Donald Trump told an Israeli reporter: "Well, that's because you fought back. And I think Israel made a very big mistake.” (ABC News)

🏛️ Inside the Brandeis Center: The New York Times profiled Ken Marcus, who runs an influential legal advocacy group helping to redefine campus antisemitism and shift federal policy that some believe is limiting speech against Israel. (New York Times)

🇩🇪 Germany set to add citizenship test questions about Jews and Israel: Prospective German citizens could be asked to answer questions like: “What is a Jewish house of prayer called?” and “Who can become a member of the approximately 40 Jewish Maccabi sports clubs in Germany?” if the interior ministry finalizes a new battery of questions for the test. (Washington Post)

🗯️ Candace Owens booted from network after antisemitism: Candace Owens was removed from fellow right-wing pundit Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire network after claiming that “secret Jewish gangs” terrorized Hollywood and that Jews drink the blood of Christians. (Washington Post)

🛏️ Professor ends sit-in: Ron Hassner, the U.C. Berkeley professor who slept in his office to protest campus antisemitism, has returned home citing a positive response by the university. (JTA)

❓ OPINION | When does anti-Zionism become antisemitism? A Jewish historian’s perspective: Suzanne Rutland, a former professor at the University of Sydney, draws together different views on where the line is between hostility toward Jews and criticism of Israel. (The Conversation)

FACE IN THE FIGHT: JESSE GABRIEL

California Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel helps lead the state legislature’s Jewish caucus. (Photo: Courtesy)

The California legislature has one of the most active Jewish caucuses in the country, and co-chair Jesse Gabriel has been trying to “pull the fire alarm” on antisemitism in recent months. A Democrat representing a district outside Los Angeles, Gabriel has led calls for more support from traditional Democratic allies in the state.

Gabriel has also harshly criticized some pro-Palestinian protesters who have demonstrated at the state capitol, including Jewish demonstrators, arguing that they sometimes slip into antisemitism.

“We are trapped between the far-right and the far-left,” Gabriel told Politico. “The one thing that they seem to agree on is that Jews are uniquely evil, and that we are responsible for the world’s problems.”

MAIL BAG

Last week’s analysis of a new study that found conservative college students are more likely than liberal ones to hold certain extreme views about Israel and Jews, even as many Jewish students appear to feel ostracized by progressive campus activism targeting Israel in recent months, provoked strong feelings readers shared in my inbox and on Twitter, where I elaborated on some of the findings.

This is absolutely essential to understand and internalize. Left-leaning young people abhor violence and hatred — against Israelis, Palestinians, Jews, Muslims or anybody else. It is and has always been the rightwing in the US that overwhelmingly normalizes violence and hatred. — Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy

Some of these results are disturbing, particularly that 10% of Jewish students attended Pro Palestinian demonstrations and that 19% did not support the existence of Israel. This is the most troublesome finding. — Jeff

A reporter from the Forward analyzes survey results suggesting that rightwing students have more hostile attitudes to Jews than leftwing students, but fails to point out that the number of rightwing students in the survey is negligible and has virtually no impact on campus culture. The survey results are a major indictment of the worsening campus culture. — David Bernstein, chief executive officer of the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values

One thought is that self-identified progressives may feel that blatant discrimination — and targeting Israeli civilians — do not fit their self-image, but nevertheless they hold these views at some level and are just are not willing to recognize and/or admit what they really feel? — Eric

Note: Letters lightly edited for clarity and length

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